Efficacy of a comprehensive psychostimulation program in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease is defined by a picture of dementia, that is, by a progressive process of cognitive impairment, and insidious functional onset to which behavioral alterations can be associated. The proposed intervention is a comprehensive psychostimulation program that consists of different non-pharmacological therapeutic strategies. The objective of the work is to evaluate the efficacy of a program of integral psychostimulation both in the maintenance of cognitive performance and in the improvement of the quality of life in patients recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and who have mild-moderate cognitive impairment. The sample consisted of eight people. The instruments used were the Cognitive Mini- Examination scale and the Quaity of Life in a Disease Scale. The results indicated cognitively, slight improvements. 50% of patients get the same score as at the beginning, 37.5% obtained an improvement. In relation to quality of life, 50% of patients improve, 12.5% maintain the same score, and however, 37.5% get worse. In conclusion, the findings of this study reveal that although the intervention did not produce significant improvements in the measured variables, the patients reported a qualitative clinical improvement mainly at the functional level.